Toru Takemitsus remembered

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Robert Aitken Artistic Director

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new music concerts presents

- Toru Takemitsu Remembered

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8:00 pm Thursday February 20 1997 (film at 7:00)

The Glenn Gould Studio / Canadian Broadcasting Centre

, [fhursday, February 20, 1997, ‘8: 00 PM
Glenn Gould Studio
Canadian Broadcasting Centre

new music concerts presents

Toru Takemitsu
Remembered

(October 8, 1930—February 20, 1996)

7:00 pm Video:
“Music for the Movies: Toru Takemitsu”
Directed by Charlotte Zwerin

8:00 pm Concert:

Masque (1959/61) Dur. 10'
Continu, Incidental | (1959), Incidental Il (1961)
Dianne Aitken, Robert Aitken, flute

Sacrifice (1962) Dur. 7'

Chant 1, Chant 2

Robert Aitken, flute, Alan Torok, lute
Bob Becker, vibraphone

Stanza II (1971) Dur. 6'
Erica Goodman, harp and tape

ogramme

hes ©Voice (1971) Dur. 7'
©. Robert Aitken, solo flute

Bryce (1976) Dur. 12'

Robert Aitken, alto flute,

Erica Goodman, Charlotte Moon, harps,
Robin Engelman, John Wyre, percussion

Intermission

Rain Spell (1982) Dur. 10'

Robert Aitken, flute, Stanley McCartney, clarinet,
Charlotte Moon, harp, Andrew Burashko, piano,
Robin Engelman, vibraphone

ltinerant (1989) Dur. 6'
—In Memory of Isamu Noguchi—
Robert Aitken, solo flute

and then I knew ‘twas Wind (1992) Dur. 13'
Robert Aitken, flute, Steven Dann, viola,
Erica Goodman, harp

Air (1995) Dur. 7’
Robert Aitken, solo flute

presented with the generous assistance of:

Oy The Japan Foundation PIONECR

Matsushita Electric

THE MITSUI CANADA FOUNDATION of Canada Limited

Tonight's program is being recorded by Two New Hours for
broadcast on Sunday March 2, 1997; new music concerts’ first
concert of this season, “John Beckwith—A Portrait” will be ,
broadcast on March 9th. Both shows begin at 10:05 pm on the
CBC Stereo network.

Music is either sound or silence. As long as | live | shall
choose sound as something to confront a silence. That sound
should be a single, strong sound.

TORU TAKEMITSU (1962)

Born in Tokyo on October 8, 1930, Takemitsu had only a brief
period of study with the composer Yasuji Kiyose and was mainly
self-taught as a musician. As Takemitsu himself relates it, his
musical epiphany occured in his early teenage years when,
while serving as a member of a student relief force in the
hinterlands ‘of Japan near the end of the War, he became
transfixed by a friend’s recording of the famous French
chanson, Parlez-mois d’amour. Henceforth, he determined, he
would make music himself someday—f only the War would end!

Unfortunately, after the collapse of Japanese militarism
Takemitsu’s parents refused to support his aspirations, and
the young composer found himself quite literally “out on his
ear’. In order to support himself he worked for two years in the
kitchen of a US military base, the drudgery of which at least had
the advantage of free access to the piano in the dining hall.

Inthe course of his self-directed studies Takemitsu found himself
drawn to the music of those composers who were themselves
deeply influenced by the musical and philosophical traditions of
Asian culture, especially Debussy, Messiaen, and Cage.

It was while he was a pupil of Kiyose in 1948 that he met his

contemporaries Hayasaka and Matsudaira, who had much to:

teach him about traditional Japanese and Asian music.
Between 1950 and 1952 the three of them took part in Kiyose’s
Shin Sakkyokuha Kyokai (New School of Composers) group,
where Takemitsu received his first performances. At these
concerts he established friendships with his colleagues Joji
Yuasa and Kuniharu Akiyama. Together with several other
painters, poets and performers they established a new group,
the Jikken Kobo (Experimental Workshop), dedicated to the
performance of mixed media works. Takemitsu’s contributions
to their repertoire included some of the earliest examples of
musique concréte, free improvisation, graphic notation and
aleatoric music.

——2a ——_—_ = ———~

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Takemitsu came to international attention as a result of the
lavish praise Stravinsky expressed after hearing his Requiem
for strings in 1959. Henceforth Takemitsu’s career blossomed,
and all his future compositions were to be commissioned
works. He enjoyed travelling throughout the world to prepare
the first performances of these pieces and to discuss his music.
He was composer-in-residence at the Canberra Spring Festival,
the California Institute of Technology, Toronto’s New Music
Concerts, Berliner Festwochen, Colorado Musical Festival,
Tanglewood Festival, Banff Centre, Aldeburgh Festival and
many others. He also lectured at Harvard, Boston, Yale and
other universities. |

Takemitsu’s music, with its inimitable integration of east and
west, timbre and texture, and sound and silence, represents
for many the prototype of the multi-cultural composer. In
introducing New Music Concerts’ 1996-97 season Robert
Aitken lamented the fact that during his recent tour of Japan
‘the idea was put forward that Takemitsu may have been the last
truly international Japanese composer and that most young
composers were not really interested in being known
internationally.”

In 1962 Takemitsu became the first composer to write for
Japanese instruments in a Western manner, introducing the
lute-like biwa in the film Seppuku and pairing the instrument
with the shakuhachi (bamboo flute) in his 1967 orchestral work
November Steps (commissioned for the 125th anniversary of
the New York Philharmonic— the first recording of the work was
performed by the Toronto Symphony under Seiji Ozawa.
Takemitsu’s scores for the films of Akira Kurosawa (including
the classics Dodes’kaden, and Ran) brought his music to an
even larger audience in the 1970s & 80s.

When | was a child, the strong impressions movies made on
me came not from the story, but from the words and images,
including the music. Put another way, they came from unex-
pected, altered reality. Movie scenes are constantly shifting.
Movie music must also constantly change. But when | sit
down to compose, personal feelings and immediate inclina-
tions are inescapable. That is why participating in making a
movie enriches my life as a composer.
TORU TAKEMITSU (1971)

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In both his approach to film scores and in his personal life,
Fakemitsu was renowned for his ability to mimic dialects. At the
drop of a swizzle-stick, notes film historian Donald Richie, Toru
would amuse his confréres in many a Tokyo piano bar with a
medley of jazz tunes, larded with a set of hilarious country and
western send-ups and, as the evening deteriorated, “the most
exquisite of melodic variations on a favourite ocarina”.

Takemitsu's first visit to Toronto was at the invitation of the
Toronto Symphony Orchestra for a performance of November
Steps under Seiji Ozawa. Subsequently Robert Aitken brought
the composer to Canada for festival performances of his chamber
music in 1975 and 1983. The close friendships that developed
between Mr. Aitken as well as the members of the Toronto-based
NEXUS percussion ensemble led to the composition of anumber —
of works which received their first performances through New
Music Concerts auspices. The special relationship that contin-
ues to exist between Takemitsu and Canada was formally recog-
nized in September of 1996 when the composer was posthu-
mously awarded the highly prestigious Glenn Gould Prize, for his
“exceptional contribution to the international world of music”.

_ 1 do not compose for simple personal gain but to be reassured
of my own being and to explore my relationship to others.
Naturally, as one growing up in Japan | could not be indepena-
ent of my country’s traditions. But that awareness of my own
national tradition has special meaning, since it came to me
after | had studied Western music.

Toru TAKEmiTSU (1980)

A partial performance of the early flute duet Masque (1959) was
presented at the Karuisawa Festival of Contemporary Music in
August of 1959. Takemitsu had won the first prize in their
composition contest of the previous year for his string octet Le
Son Calligraphié |. |twas the first of many awards and distinctions
that would grace his career. The titles of the movements appear
to refer to the differing compositional approaches the composer
adopts—while the first part of the work (Continu) is complex and
polyphonic the following movements (/ncidental I&II) are more
straightforward and homophonic. The complete version was
heard the following year in Tokyo in a performance by Soichi
Minegishi and Shinya Koide.

For me composition always involves a strong interaction
between music and words. To find an appropriate title for a
composition | move back and forth between sounds and
words. Many of my titles are strange; some critics think they
are simply the result of a poetic whim. But when | decide on a
title, itis not merely to suggest a mood but a mark of the
significance of the music and the problems encountered in its
general construction. Words are the means by which | replace
emotion and conflict with a musical plan.

TORU TAKEMITSU (1987)

Takemitsu’s programme note for his composition Sacrifice
(1962) is an early example of his rather idiosyncratic sense of
the English language—indeed, literature in general was a con-
tinuing source of inspiration for him.

This work is devoted to a “God” who reigns over my
imagination—over the world of my auditory imagination,
though it is not meant for any specific religion. It is the reason
why [the movements of] the work are called Chant, and [why]
| believe that all the musical forms are to come to that of prayer.

The work was composed in 1962 for the Tokyo Contemporary
Music Festival. It constitutes with my Ring and Sonant the
tryptich which features the traditional lute.

It is stillness or a dead silence that | intended to express. | hope
it breathes vividly beyond every note.

TORU TAKEMITSU

(note provided for the Canadian premiére, 1983)

Stanza I1(1971) for harp and tape was premiered in Paris in 1972
by Ursula Holliger to whom it is dedicated. It is intended as a
companion piece to the solo flute piece, Voice. There are three
sources of sound on the tape; bell-like sounds produced by two
harps, an electronically produced drone which pervades the
piece, and a third which is composed of natural sounds—bird

songs and human voices. These represent the “myriad shifting -

sounds constantly penetrating the world of man.”

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Enchanted by the mystery of water | wrote a piece of music
using water power as the means to activate a musical
instrument. The glissandi produced by water were so delicate
that no other means could have reproduced that sound. Think-
ing of musical form | think of liquid form. | wish for musical
. changes to be as gradual as the tides.

TORU TAKEMITSU (1980)

Rain Spell was written for the Japanese contemporary music
ensemble “Sound Space Ark” and was premiered by them in
Yokohama in January of 1983. Takemitsu’s fascination with the
subject of water in all its manifestations has been a continuing
theme in his works, dating back to the begining of his career
with his 1963 electronic work, Water Music.

Sometimes my music follows the design of a particular existing
garden. At times it may follow the design of an imaginary
garden | have sketched. Time in my music may be said to be
the duration of my walk through these gardens.

TORU TAKEMITSU (1987)

Commissioned by New Music Concerts with the generous
assistance of the Canada Council, Bryce is dedicated to Bryce
Engelman who is the son of Robin Engelman. The piece is
fundamentally constructed on the relationship between the
three notes extracted from the name “Bryce”, Bb, C and E,
and eight quarter tones which are close to these three notes.
Bryce is a water music, tranquilly rising and falling like a ripple.

In July of 1971 Toru met my son Bryce who was seven years
old. This was the first time my son ever bowed to anyone and
the first time a stranger had offered to shake his hand. Toru
and Bryce shared an afternoon of origami and later played
softball in the backyard. At that time Toru asked me the
meaning of my son’s name, but | had forgotten. By the next
day, Toru had checked it out and told me it meant “the centre
of feeling”. He said, “I am going to write a piece.” Bryce was
premiered in Toronto in 1976.

ROBIN ENGELMAN (1996)

In an interview with Alan Blyth in 1973 Takemitsu explained his
growing pre-occupation with writing for individual players. Re-

se eee

porting in The Times of London, Blyth observed: “In doing so, he
takes into account not only the instrument but also the —_
individual’s features and personality, the occasion on which

the work will be performed and the conditions of the performance. O
In this way he is hoping to get away from the tendency towards a
the abstract in music.”

A prime example of this is the repertoire of flute works he —/)
conceived for the Swiss flutist Auréle Nicolet. Nicolet (b. 1926)
has won an immense international reputation as an interpreter
of contemporary music. A student of André Jaunet and Marcel
Moyse, he played in orchestras under Hermann Scherchen and
Wilhelm Furtwangler until 1959, after which he became professor
of flute at the Hochschule der Kunste, Berlin, and then at the
Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik in Freiburg—a position now
held by Robert Aitken. New Music Concerts brought Mr. Nicolet
and Mr. Aitken together for a duo recital, “Virtuoso Flute Music
of Our Time”, in December of 1992.

Takemitsu’s extensive writing for the Western flute incorporates
the wide range of microtonal and timbral subtleties characteristic
of traditional shakuhachi performance practices as well as the
extended performance techniques of the European avant-garde,
including percussive attacks, multiphonics, and singing through
the instrument.

Voice (1971) was suggested by a line of poetry from Shuzo
Takiguchi’s “Handmade Proverbs” which, when rendered into
English, reveals its Shakespearian source:—who goes there?
Speak, transparence, whoever you are! Nicolet premiered Voice
in July of 1971 at the Festival of Hawaii. This particular festival
had a special meaning for the composer, for it was at a previous
such event in 1964 that Takemitsu was befriended by John Cage.

The solo flute work /tinerant (1989) belongs to a cluster of short
pieces and literary articles commemorating the lives of artists
the composer admired. It is dedicated to the memory of the
Japanese sculptor Isamu Noguchi. Concerning his friend,
Takemitsu wrote in 1973, “Noguchi is a traveler. My
aquaintance with him and the experience of seeing his
works ended my comfortable existence and set me on the path
to the world of the unknown”. The first performance by flutist
Paula Robison took place in New York in 1989.

and then 1 knew ’twas Wind (1992) was commissioned by Akira
Obi as a gift for Auréle Nicolet and was premiered by Nicolet
in May of 1992 in Mito, Japan. The title of the work is taken from
a verse in one of the longer poems of Emily Dickinson. Before
the words of the title comes the line, Like Rain it sounded till it
curved, which then continues, And then | knew ‘twas Wind.

Air (1995), Takemitsu’s final work, was conceived as a 7Oth
birthday present for Auréle Nicolet. The Japanese flutist Yasukazu
Uemura first played it for him on January 28, 1996 in Oberwil,
Switzerland.

Toru Takemitsu died a year ago today on February 20th. He had
been suffering from bladder cancer since the previous year, and
died in hospital of pneumonia.

For all, death is inevitable. In the sorrow that grips me | see
not the void but the clear blue sky, and | sense the vast realm
of undying death. Under no circumstance should we let sorrow

close down our lives.

TORU TAKEMITSU (1980)

Unless otherwise noted, quotations attributed to Toru Takemitsu are excerpted
from Confronting Silence: Selected Writings, translated and edited by Yoshiko
Kakudo and Glenn Glasow, published by Fallen Leaf Press, Berkeley, California,

1995. (ISBN 0-914913-36-0)

programme notes © 1997 by Daniel Foley

New Music Concerts

A glimpse into the utopian world of
visionary German architect Bruno Taut
through the imagination of composer
Jens Peter Ostendorf.

Featuring:

Jens Peter Ostendorf, guest conductor
and the New Music Concerts Ensemble

Sunday, March 16, 1997, 8 PM.

The Design Exchange
234 Bay Street

aer

wountiee nee

Programme
Der Weltbaumeister (1993 rev 96) Jens Peter Sxendort

~ New Music Concerts.Ensemble under the direction of the composer

naaeiater

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This performance will take place amidst

an environment conceived of and designed by
installation artist Henry Jesionka and

film maker Peter Mettler.

GEWAN ” GOETHE-/Z O

came stiTUT Gy toronto
Sponsored by the Goethe Institut

with the assistance of New Music Concerts.

for tickets or information call 416 961 9594

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Mary Morrison, 0.c., secretary/treasurer
Robert Aitken, c.m., artistic director
Michael Koerner, c.m., John Valenteyn
Joseph Macerollo, Marvin Green

Lorraine Johnson, general manager
Rick Hyslop, production manager
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New Music Concerts gratefully acknowledges the financial support of: The
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Division, The Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Citizenship, Culture
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Italiano of Canada, Barclays Bank of Canada, Thomas G. Bata, John Beckwith,
Norma Beecroft, Jessie W. Bird, Alison Brigden, Cornelius W. Brink, The British
Council, CAE Industries Ltd., Canada Trust, Canadian Imperial Bank of Com-
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University of Toronto, Dr. Andrus J. Voitk, Patricia Wardrop, Dr. Katherine M.
Warne, W. Weinstein, The M.M. Webb Foundation, Michael J. Wiggan, Christine

Wojnicki.

Special thanks to: Osamu Honda and Toshi Aoyagi of the Japan
Foundation, Hajime Tsujimoto, Consul General, and Hiroyuki
Tanaka, Vice Consul, the Consulate General of Japan, Shoji
Nakajima, Toronto Japanese Association of Commerce and
Industry, Laurie Shawn Borzovoy, One World Productions.

Mark A. Lynch and Sony Music Entertainment (Canada) for
permission to exhibit the video by Charlotte Zwerin, “Toru
Takemitsu: Music for the Movies”. Sony Classical videos are
currently available in better Classical record stores.

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